Dragon PC software now lets your voice control Gmail and Hotmail

New Android app, improved accuracy featured in Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12.

Typing out an e-mail will never require actual typing—or even mouse-clicking—again, if the maker of the popular Dragon speech recognition software has its way. The software has long allowed users to dictate e-mails or any other document by voice, but a new version set for release next month brings special integrations into Gmail and Hotmail. Now, these Web interfaces can be navigated with voice controls instead of mouse clicks.

It’s one of a promised “more than 100 new features and enhancements” in the Windows software Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 12. We couldn’t get a full list of the 100 new features, but Dragon software maker Nuance Communications says version 12 is “up to” 20 percent more accurate than the two-year-old version 11. It will also have improved Bluetooth capabilities—accepting 16kHz signals as well as 8kHz—and an app that turns an Android device into a remote microphone (a similar app is already available for iPhone).

Demonstrating the new ability of Dragon to control Gmail, Nuance Product Marketing Manager Erica Hill performed all the essential Web-based mail commands by voice, such as “click compose,” “go to subject,” “write subject,” “go to body,” etc. It’s a neat trick (which also works in Hotmail, but not Yahoo Mail or anything else), but probably not one that will make a huge difference in the lives of daily users. The Dragon add-on works in Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 12 and up, or Chrome 16 and higher. Here's what it looks like in Chrome:

More important to most users is likely the improvement in accuracy. Nuance uses anonymized data from customers (including beta users of Dragon 12) along with its own internal testing to determine the number of miscalculations per page its software makes. Unfortunately, Nuance wouldn’t tell us how many miscalculations its testing identifies on average, but said version 12 is up to 20 percent more accurate than version 11, and about 55 percent more accurate than version 9.

“People may have tried Dragon five, six, or seven editions ago, and they didn’t get the accuracy they expected, and they’re left with the impression that it doesn’t work,” Hill said. While admittedly biased since her job is to promote Dragon software, Hill said upon upgrading to version 12 she “felt that the accuracy and speed in this version is just remarkable.”

There are also various improvements to navigation, including a more obvious way to upload documents and e-mails that Dragon can scan in order to learn your writing style and habits. Dragon NaturallySpeaking 12 will cost $99.99 for a home edition and $199.99 for a premium edition, but existing users will get the premium edition for $99.99. Pre-orders will start now, with digital downloads becoming available August 3 and shipments of boxed versions occurring the week of August 13.

There’s no word yet on when the next version of Dragon Dictate for Mac will be released, or whether any of the new features for PC users will make it over to their Mac OS X counterparts.